Russia’s Sukhoi Superjet 100will be back in service at the end of January, after a month of inspections and repairs. In late December, minor cracks in the stabilizer nodes were detected during a maintenance operation on one of the aircraft, belonging to Russian company IrAero. An excessive tightening of the hub during assembly appeared to have provoked premature metal fatigue.

In view of this discovery, Russian Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) requested a prompt inspection of the 87 aircraft in service. At least 25 Superjets have been affected by this defect. The Russian aircraft manufacturer told us this problem was not critical for flight safety, and insisted it would be totally corrected by the end of the month.

Launched in 2011, the SSJ100 is an 87-seat twin-engine civilian jet delivered to 13 operators, most of them Russian.